In 115 Supreme Court Justices, only 6 have been female. Despite making up 5% of the total people serving in the highest court in America, those women have been influential over the past 40 years. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the first Jewish female Supreme Court Justice and was known for being a formidable opponent on the bench. Justice Amy Coney Barrett is incredibly knowledgeable on the Constitution and both Justice Ketanji Jackson and Elena Kagan are Ivy educated.

But none of those intelligent or powerful women were the first. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor paved the way for her five successors, being the only woman on the court for 12 years. She faced scrutiny and backlash with the stoicism that the position demanded. O’Connor was respected for her ability to pick her battles and examine arguments on a case-by-case basis.

Born in 1930 on a Southwestern ranch called Lazy B, O’Connor grew up with strict but loving parents. She loved animals, and even had a friendly pet-adjacent bobcat for a few years. But most impressive was how smart she was. Over the course of her schooling, O’Connor skipped two grades and entered Stanford at the age of 16. She went on to complete both her undergraduate degree and her law degree in a combined 6 years, graduating at the top of her class.

Unfortunately, women did not have many employment opportunities and O’Connor applied to almost 40 law firms and received one interview. In that single interview, she was asked how well she could type, indicating that she was not going to be a lawyer, but a secretary. Her husband, John O’Connor, had a job at one of the top law firms in Pheonix, Arizona while Mrs. O’Connor worked at a small strip mall firm taking every case that walked through the door.

However, by 1965, O’Connor had a job as the assistant state attorney general and was eventually appointed to the state senate of Arizona. After winning reelection twice, she had made a name for herself in politics. She became the first woman to be a majority leader in a state senate and helped repeal many laws discriminating against women.

At the same time, President Ronald Reagan had made a campaign promise to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. Justice O’Connor seemed like the obvious choice, and many seemed to agree, with her Senate confirmation being unanimous.

On the Court, the conservative Justice O’Connor proved to be more moderate. She was the deciding vote in many decisions, despite what her personal values might have been. In Tison v. Arizona, she limited the cases that the death penalty could be used. O’Connor was an example of what the Supreme Court should be, an apolitical government body that uses the Constitution to either credit or discredit actions of the other branches.

Of course, she wasn’t perfect. She has made some rulings and written some opinions in her time that would certainly not be applauded nowadays. However, she has admitted some regrets. In the 2000 voter fraud decision Bush v. Gore, O’Connor’s ruling effectively handed the election to President Bush. Before her 2013 retirement, Justice O’Connor said that she wished the Court hadn’t ruled at all, given that the case turned the public against the Court.

Following her retirement from the Supreme Court, O’Connor advocated for youth civic education, seeing informed voters as the foundation of a strong nation. She founded iCivics, a program to teach children the more complicated parts of how the American government works in online games and lesson plans.

All in all, Justice O’Connor’s legacy is that of progress and personal strength. Sandra Day O’Connor persevered in a time when journalists were more interested in her wardrobe than her rulings and where the public was against her position. O’Connor was a powerful and intelligent woman who was the beginning of a long line of women on the Supreme Court.